AND TO NAME BUT JUST A FEW

“Purple is a funny word. / rhymes with nothing. / sounds absurd! / Purple grapes / make purple gum. / my friend Violet gave me some!” Rosenwald plasters her pages with simple cut-paper shapes, wild squiggles of crayon and paint, torn photos, pieces of cardboard and snatches of big, loud text for an eye-filling celebration of color guaranteed to kickstart a general rush for the art supplies. Presenting a succession of concepts along with her colors, she starts with spreads of solid reds, introduces shades of blue, green and yellow, moves on to mixing primaries, finishes up with black and white, then closes with an invitation to find even more hues. The instructional approach provides an alternative to Lois Ehlert’s more abstract Color Zoo (1989), and makes this an ideal high-energy lead in to such elementary manuals as Dawn Sirett’s My First Paint Book (1994). (Picture book. 6-8)